A Peice of Me
by Shanna Strong
Summary: Marie Forest doesn't know what to think of her new employee, except he's handsome and considerate... what will happen when things start unraveling from beneath her feet.


Chapter 1

I started to think about what I've been through in my entire life. I don't know why I was thinking of this, but it was just something I needed to review. All my life I never fit in, I never got along with ones my own age or enjoyed being around anyone for that matter. I'd rather just sit at home in my office and read my way through life. Why do I do that? When I was five, which is my earliest memory, I threw at bottle at my thirteen year old brother. It broke and slashed his head open. He needed five stitches. Around the time I turned fourteen, I was a freshman in high school. I walked through the hallways of that hell on earth everyday. Everyday my mom would drop me off; I would walk through the doors and want to die. Now, six years later, it's about the same, with the exception that it's now work that is my living hell.

I walk through the bullet proof glassed doors.

"Good morning Ms. Forest," my secretary, Irene, said. "You have three items and one message in you mailbox."

"Okay, thank you Irene." I looked at her and smiled. Irene was a small woman, probably in her late twenties, with brown eyes and blonde hair. She wears glasses on top of her head, only using them to look at small printed items. She also always wore black, not that that was the dress code, but always in the black. Usually a black dress jacket, with black skirt, with black jeweled top, with black jewelry and black shoes. That's a lot of black on a small woman as Irene was.

"I keep telling you to just call me Marie. I don't mind."

"Yes Ms. Forest, I remember." She smiled. With a sour look on her face; not to mention.

Do you see my predicament here? I'm trying to be nice and sweet, but nothing works.

I walked into my office pausing at the door. I take off my jacket and hang it on the peg on the back of the door, closed the door and grab my mail. I walked to my desk, set the mail on the corner and put my purse into the locked drawer. I do this day after day after day. I sighed. I began to go through the mail.

Junk, junk, junk. All three items go into the trash bin. I open up the last piece of paper. It was a message from my sister, again. My sister, Melinda, has left me messages for the last two years. She and I had a fight two and one half years ago about my fiancé, Jason. Melinda and Jason apparently were having an affair. On the night of my dress rehearsal, I heard someone whispering in the church office.

"You can't do this. I can't even do this. It's not right." I heard a woman say.

"You and I both know that we can't tell anyone. For one, your dad will kill me and for two, Marie would die from sadness. We're going to do this and not say one damn thing about anything. Ever." Jason whispered.

"We can't hide this from her anymore, it's going" she broke off because I opened the door staring at them like a deer in headlights. I ran away, what more could I have done? My own sister betrayed me.

A knock interrupted my thoughts.

"Yes, come in."

In stepped a man, not just any man, the most gorgeous man you will ever see in your life. He has his hair spiked into a slight mohawk, his hazel eyes matched his green t-shirt. He wore a black suit coat over his shirt and ripped jeans, with black dress shoes. His face was amazing. His high cheek bones went along perfectly with his slanted mouth. He smiled a crooked smile and began to come forward with his hand out.

"Hello Mrs. Forest, my name is Christopher Johnson." He said, taking my hand.

"It's Ms. Forest actually, but you can call me Marie." I sat down in my seat, smiling at this creature.

"Ok Marie, will you call me Chris then?" He chuckled out.

"Of course." Chris sat down into the wooden chair. He had a manila folder across his lap. Still smiling he sat patiently while I retrieved my scheduler from my drawer. "You must be my nine thirty then." I said more seriously. This was a business meeting.

"Yes Ma'am. I've brought my resume and my high hopes, plus I'm early. Always a good sign of a great employee." He responded, still smiling, handing me the manila folder.

I opened up the folder and reviewed his resume. He had worked as a secretary at a legal firm, opened a small catering business, hosted formal events and was now hoping to work at my small jewelry store. I looked up at him.

"What happened to your catering career?"

"Sold it to my brother-in-law, he always had a taste for that sort of thing. I opened it mainly to give myself something to do." He shrugged his shoulders.

"So you opened a business, that you had no sort of liking for and began hosting events? Excuse me for saying, but why the hell would you do that? You wasted a bunch of money for what exactly?" I didn't mean to pry, but that sounded like something an idiot would do. Was this man an arrogant jerk or some type of psychopath? He shifted his weight to his right side and put his leg across the other. I have a feeling this is going to be weird.

"Ok, so I actually opened the shop to please my dad. He owns and is head chef at The Moonlight," I recognized the name only because that was my favorite restaurant in town. It had the most exquisite Italian ravioli in the entire universe. "He was always talking about how he wished I would make something of my life. So, I figured it would make him happy, plus I'm a pretty good cook."

"Huh."

That's all I could say. The truth was that I opened this business because of my mother. She had a beautiful collection of sapphires and wished she could display them somewhere where the people around them would ah in their sight. She talked about opening a jewelry shop herself, but didn't have the resources. I decided to open one and make her the manager and second in command. She was so happy the night I told her, I think she could have flipped flopped around my living room if she could. Her recent passing has left me with no store manager and no will to keep my business from suffering. She was the best partner I had and I don't really know what to do now.

"I could give you a minute and come back later." He smiled, but still a little bit anxious. I composed myself.

"No, I'm fine. How compensation would you like to receive?"

"I guess eight dollars an hour, if that's okay." He smiled, still anxious.

"Well, then you should be very happy here. I'll pay you ten. Just go to Irene and get your paperwork. You can bring that and yourself back here nine on Monday." I stood, and as he did, and shook my hand. He began to walk toward the door.

"Oh, Chris?" He turned to stare. "Don't let me down."

"Don't worry Marie; I'll be the best store manager you've ever seen. I guarantee I'll sell three hundred thousand dollars within my first week. It's easy enough to read people. I was practicing while Daniel was instructing me, you know, practicing on what I would say. Reading people, going along with what they want, while making more offers on more expensive items. You won't have a problem with me." He turned and walked out the door, shutting it so quietly it took me a second to realize it was shut. I let out a deep breathe.

This has to be the perfect employee. He has such a great attitude; people would just buy because of the way he presented himself. I had to say I was almost excited.

I reached for the phone, pressing Irene's button.

"Irene, could you please have Daniel come to my office please. Thank you."

"Yes Ms. Forest, I'll page him right away."

There was no doubt that I would soon have to hire a new secretary. Irene was getting a little to, oh let's say, annoying. She's rude to everyone; she never smiles like she means it and I think customers are frightened of her and her all black attire. Irene would have to be replaced. I would put Chris in charge of that as his first task.

Knock.

"Come in."

"Irene said you needed to see me?" Daniel paused at the door. He never actually entered my office unless asked.

Daniel had black hair with blue eyes. He dressed very sharp for his age. The twenty-one year old was smoking hot. Unfortunately, he also had a twenty year old wife who was pregnant with twins. Yay! Of course she was a very pretty girl, even while pregnant. I usually think pregnant people look unbelievably hideous, but she was a beautiful mother-to-be. Daniel married Sheena when they were eighteen. The have dated since the tenth grade and were still in love with each other. I respected that. I envied that actually.

"Yes Daniel, Chris will be here at nine on Monday. I want you to get him a name tag and book by then please."

"Ok, will do. Would you like anything else?"

"No, thank you."

Daniel shut the door and I felt at ease. This was about as much people as I could stand within one day. Not that any of them weren't wonderful people, I just enjoy my alone time. I probably enjoyed this too much.

On Monday morning I walked into the door at five to nine. I almost laughed because Irene wasn't there. She was always the first here at eight thirty sharp. I laughed because Chris was behind her desk answering the phone.

"Good morning, Inside Jewels, this is Chris. How may I help you?" Pause. "Yes sir, we do carry princess cut diamonds. How about you come in and I will show you the most beautiful rings you have ever seen." Pause. "Eleven is fine, what's your name?" Pause. "Jared Jenkins. Okay Jared just come to the front desk at eleven and ask for Chris. I'll be here all day." Pause. "Okay, thank you. See you at eleven." Click. He looked up.

"Hello Marie. I was just picking up the pieces. Seems Irene decided to go to Vegas and get married to a banker." He shrugged. "I think we will be better off without her anyways."

"I agree." I wouldn't tell him I hated the fact of anyone getting married, but I was glad that saved me the excuse of firing her. "I expect you to find another secretary by eleven. There are applications in the top drawer. Daniel will tell you what to do." I started heading for my office.

"Marie, I have some other bad news." I turned to face him.

"What?" I pouted a little.

"Daniel called me at eight to tell me to be here at eight thirty to manage the morning tasks. He told me to tell you that Sheena was going into labor and he wouldn't be able to come to work."

"Well, he should have called me. I would have been here."

"He said that he did call you, but it went straight to voice mail."

"Shoot, I forgot to turn it on." I automatically grabbed the phone out of my purse and hit the on switch. "I always forget that."

"Yeah, that's what Daniel said."

I smiled at him and turned to walk toward my office. I hung my coat, grabbed my mail, shut the door, placed the mail on the corner of the desk, locked my purse and sat down. A slight knock came to the door as I grabbed my scheduler.

"Yes?"

He opened the door. "Can I come in for a minute?"

"Sure. Come on in. Take a seat."

He began to sit while still smiling.

"Marie, what would you like for me to do this morning? We open at ten, so I know what to do after that, I just don't know what to do for the next hour. Besides secretary interviewing, I have no idea what goes on before we open." He laughed again.

"Oh, well you can just do that. I'm sure that'll be the full hour."

"Okay. I should probably tell you the first interview is in about five minutes and I brought these back." He handed me another manila folder which contained all his paperwork.

"Okay, thank you." He got up from his seat, with a smile, and left me alone in my silence.

I began to ponder this Chris Johnson. I looked at the paperwork he handed me. Born in Texas, married once and also divorced. I looked at the date more closely. He was married for a month. I laughed out loud. No wonder he was so screwed up. His wife must have been a real handle. I also had his passport copy, which was needed for out of country diamond shows. It did not look like the same Chris Johnson I saw just a second ago. This man looked really messed up, like he's been through a tornado. He was very, very thin, with sadden eyes and flat ear length hair. I must have stared at his picture for a long time, because whenever there was another knock at the door, it startled me.

"Yes." I said, putting away the paperwork.

"Marie, this is Christina Roberts. I just wanted you to talk to her about the secretary job." Chris said handing me her application.

"Yes, of course. Come in Christina."

As I shook Christina's hand I accessed her appearance. She was about my height, 5'3; black hair with brown eyes. Her face gave the impression of confidence, which was good. She was wearing a blue top, with a gray skirt and blue matching heels. As I talked with her, I saw automatically why Chris liked her for the secretary. The way she talked and laughed, there was just something about her charisma that everyone should love.

Hired.

For the next thirty minutes I instructed Chris on what morning tasks where, while Christina read over all of Irene's notes. They both were quite brilliant at what they were trained to do. I began to show Chris how to open and close the store.

"After you open, the key should be placed here." I explained, while opening up the little hide away box.

"Put the key in the box, got it." He smiled while tapping his head. "All in the memory. God this job is going to be so hard, I can already tell."

That, of course, made me giggle. I felt myself turning red. He stopped smiling and stared at me.

"What?" I questioned.

"Nothing," he said running his hand through his hair and looking away. "I just was thinking about something."

What was he not saying. I could see in his face that he wanted to say something more. I decided not to press the issue.

"Okay, Miss Forest, what's next?"

"That's about it for today. I need to finish some things in my office," I started to walk away. "I'll be in there if you need me."

As I got to my office door, I looked back at Chris. He was rummaging through the desk that I had bought for him. He looked up at me and had a goofy smile on his face. I turned away grinning and walked into my office. I stopped by the bookshelf and picked up a picture. It was a significant picture, only because my mother was in it. She never took pictures. It was her holding me in her arms. I remember the day we took it. My sister had taken it quickly so that my mother wouldn't object. I had it printed the day after and had it in a frame that same day.

There was a slight knock on my door. It opened quietly as Chris poked his head in. His face turned from a smile to shock.

"Marie, are you okay?" Chris' question broke my concentration. I hadn't realized that I had been crying. I quickly wiped away my tears and smiled up at him.

"Yes, just fine. Sorry." Chris' hand reached up toward my face and wiped away a few tears from my cheek.

"Why apologize? Tears are no reason for apologies." He smiled and went back to work.


End file.
